Having seen how the Market put information into a slave was something that Ranma found oddly creepy. That wasn't due to the fact that it was directly inputting the information into a brain, which he had to admit had some appeal, considering the fact that he had wished for something like that when he was in school. Nor was it the fact that Akane had actually learned to do something more complicated than boiling water, as her cooking, even as she got better at it on her own, was in no way shape or form appealing, making having her able to make something edible both physical and taste wise was simply too good to pass up. Rather, it had to do with the ease that Akane had allowed this to happen, as she simply made herself available for it as soon as he told her to.
But now that it was done, he didn't have that image as a visible reminder, though he still had the girl herself, and everything that she had owned.
"Now, will there be anything else?" Kuroda asked, smiling politely.
Ranma thought as hard as he could, and found himself at a loss. The fact of it was that he wasn't certain about any of this, though he did know that Akane was apparently happy with it. On the other hand, he didn't know how she was actually handling it, since her conditioning wouldn't allow her to speak out. But he didn't know anything about what would make her feel better about it, as he knew that girls seemed to like wierd stuff, like make up, jewelry, and clothing....
"I guess an outfit or two wouldn't hurt," Ranma admitted. "Somethin' that'd fit her now...."
The slaver raised a brow. "Size wise?"
"Style wise."
"Ah.... A slave outfit. Anything else?"
"Not particularly. Why?"
"There are plenty of other things to choose from. We could give you materials for helping in using your slave. Or maybe some way to mark her as yours, say something that she'd wear that she couldn't take off. Or we could tattoo your mark onto her to permanently show who she belongs to. There are tools that you can use to punish her when she's been bad...."
"I thought that ya made her inta a slave completely."
"We did."
"Then why would I haveta punish her."
"That is... a good point," Kuroda admitted.
"'Sides, all I want is the outfit, and for us ta get goin'."
"That's it?"
"It is. Ya gotta problem with that?"
"Not really."
"We could always come back."
"That would be good for us," the elder man told him. "On the other hand...."
"What?"
"To tell you the truth, it's rather astonishing that we get someone who actually leaves here that simply," Kuroda replied.
"Oh?"
"It's true. You see, something usually happens. The slave gets changed in some strange way. The owner makes a mistake, and winds up with more than the number of slaves he'd come for, loses his slave to us, or becomes a slave himself. Or it happens that we wind up selling him plenty of items. Having someone leave with only a slave who has an added skill and a new outfit...."
"Isn't always going ta happen."
"Exactly. And to tell you the truth, I expected that you would be one of the ones winding up with a bunch of slaves."
"The one that I got is enough for now," Ranma answered, and then realized that in a store on a street where the places of business had a lot of tempting traps for the unwary, he had actually managed to keep away from getting in too deep. "If anythin' comes up, I'll know where ya are."
"Is that so?"
"D'ya think that I could actually forget what happened here?"
"I suppose not. Would you like to choose the outfit for your slave?"
"Already got one in mind."
"You do?"
"Leather. All of it, 'xcept certain parts. Not exactly somethin' that I'd normally pick out for her, but I think that's what she'd like right now."
"I'm sure that she would."
Leading his slave along, Ranma picked up the outfit, and said his goodbyes, while:
Mon Dec 05 23:28:44 2005